


Pas de Quatre

by severinne



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Community: picfor1000, Discovery, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-26
Updated: 2009-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 06:07:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/157791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/severinne/pseuds/severinne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it takes four to dance around the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pas de Quatre

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the ROYGBIV Challenge at picfor1000.
> 
> Elements of Chris' POV are inspired by the following lost gem from the BBC's transcript of LoM's pilot script following Dora's questioning in Lost and Found:
> 
> SAM  
> What...did she say?  
> CHRIS  
> Uhhh...  
>  _SAM snatches the notebook - pages of tree sketches._  
> 

Chris thumbed through his notebook nervously, stealing glances at Ray and DI Tyler. Ray chomped his gum with unusual vigour, but the Boss was a statue in his chair across from them. The blue glow of Lost and Found seemed to freeze him in place, preserving the sheen of his skin beneath his three undone buttons. Even though Chris itched to see those buttons done up again, he didn’t dare speak. He envied Tyler’s steady, unmoved patience.

Then again, Chris envied a lot of the other blokes, like PC Mallows, who was so good at drawing that he scarcely had to work at it at all. Not the way Chris struggled, pencil held so tight it made his fingertips go numb.

He couldn’t draw people worth a toss, but he could draw trees. Chris’ little notebook was full of them, and flipping backward through those sketches set off faint crinkling sounds in the thick blue silence, cutting the awkwardness somewhat but Ray knocked his knee under the table and Chris hesitantly snapped the notebook shut.

The Guv returned, and Chris felt the tension around the table slide away, their uneven three restored to four. A nearly full bottle of single malt dangled from one hand; four of the canteen’s glasses were clenched together in the fingers of the other. He dropped them on the table with a clatter and spin, the inside of each smeared with greasy fingerprints – four thin, vertical ghosts obliterated by the splash of scotch.

They reached for their drinks carefully, one at a time with no risk of touching. Ray snatched up a tumbler as soon as the Guv had sat with his own; Chris took the last once DI Tyler had dragged the third close between his hands, as though for warmth.

Chris lit a cigarette once he saw Ray do the same. Unexpectedly, the Guv pushed his pack sideways towards Tyler, who grimaced before plucking a fag to his lips. The Guv turned to light the Boss’ cigarette before his own, and there was something so easy in the gesture that it made Chris ache.

He saw Ray sneer from the corner of his eye but Chris watched, fascinated, when the Boss exhaled a first casual mouthful of smoke like a man long accustomed to the habit. Chris liked to draw willows sometimes, if only to see how far he could bend the lines and still make them look like trees.

Sometimes, their lithe shapes reminded him of DI Tyler.

‘Alright, Ray.’

The blue air thickened and tensed again. The Guv was either oblivious or, more likely, didn’t care; he hunched forward, bare forearms propped on the table. ‘Let’s have it, then.’

Whenever Chris sketched the Guv in his little notebook, he drew him as an oak tree: solid and upright. Drawing the trunk was easy, the branches less so.

‘Have what now?’

Ray’s retort bristled. Chris remembered why he thought of Ray whenever his pencil scratched out the prickly shape of the blackthorn at his Gran’s. He used to spend his summers hiding under that sprawling shrub, helped her pick the sloes in autumn for her gin.

The blackthorn was his favourite tree.

‘It’s your own bloody fault.’ The Guv’s hand slapped the table hard. ‘Why were you coming in here anyway?’

Chris felt his left leg start to shake uncontrollably under the table.

Ray seethed, eyes wide. ‘Oh, don’t try laying this one on me-‘

‘I’ll do what I bloody well please.’

Tyler winced. ‘That’s not really helping…’

‘Cheers, Boss.’ Ray smirked, his words simmering with disgust. ‘You should listen to your tart, Guv, he’s got a point.’

The table shook, scotch splashing over as the Guv surged to his feet and lunged across the table, hauling Ray upright by his lapels. ‘DI Tyler,’ he hissed, ‘is your superior officer, _Sergeant_. You call him that again, and I’ll break off your jaw and shove it down the hole I’ll have made in your neck, got it?’

‘Superior officer, eh?’ Ray’s scathing grin transformed into something that made Chris tremble harder. ‘If I’d known he got to be your DI by sucking your cock, I’d’ve never-‘

The Guv punched him in the face. Ray sagged in the same moment that Tyler leapt to his feet, and Chris found himself standing seconds later, keeping time with their dance.

‘Jesus, Gene.’ Tyler’s hands caught the Guv’s shoulders, struggling to drag him back.

‘Apologize to Sam, you miserable tosser.’ He shrugged Tyler off effortlessly, all his rage narrowed on Ray, who merely coughed blood down his chin and grimaced.

‘Not apologizing to your whore.’

The Guv drew his fist back again. He scarcely looked human anymore.

‘We were comin’ in here for the same reason you were.’

The moment froze, and only by the three pairs of eyes staring at him in confusion did Chris realize that the sudden shout was his own.

‘I mean…’ Heart thudding nervously, Chris licked his dry lips, glanced around. ‘Ray and I… we were comin’ in here to… same thing…’

Realization sparked to life in the Boss’ eyes, his mouth gaping in disbelief.

‘…thick walls,’ Chris finished lamely. Oh, god. Had he…?

‘Chris.’ Ray stared sideways at him, betrayal twitching off the very ends of his moustache. ‘Chris, you stupid _div_ -‘

‘Ray.’ This was so much easier once the words had come out. Chris met Ray’s piercing blue eyes, unflinching. ‘Ray,’ he repeated, softer, and the moment passed.

More shocking, most surreal of all was the Guv, who slowly released Ray’s lapels and nodded. Just _nodded_ , only once, like a man who had asked a question and got exactly the answer he expected.

‘Okay.’ The Guv set his chair upright again, straightened Tyler’s out before taking a seat at the table again. Chris caught the hard measuring look surging between Ray and the Boss before they sat together again in an uneven sort of sync.

‘So.’ The Guv reached for the bottle, refilled the spilled glasses. ‘Let’s try this again.’


End file.
